The Influencers

Influence may be the highest level of human skills.  -Author Unknown by J. William DeMarco Stepping into a job where you might feel overwhelmed by the shear number of people that you are responsible for? I can relate.  When I first stepped into my current position, I did not know anyone, I was new to …

Battleship Earth: Does the Pentagon have the right weapons to fight off an alien invasion?

ForeignPolicy.com May 30, 2012 By Cara Parks and Joshua E. Keating As summer blockbuster season kicks into high gear, big-budget action movies like The Avengers, Battleship, and Prometheus remind us that there's one thing that unites Americans: Our shared fear of an alien attack. They also remind us that when the invading space fleet arrives, …

6 Leadership Styles, And When You Should Use Them by Robyn Benincasa

fastcompany.com / view original Taking a team from ordinary to extraordinary means understanding and embracing the difference between management and leadership. According to writer and consultant Peter Drucker, "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." Manager and leader are two completely different roles, although we often use the terms interchangeably. Managers are facilitators of their team …

8 Leadership & Management Lessons On The Starship Enterprise by Elish Bul-godley

view original / tweakyourbiz.com If you are a Star Trek fan, you will know that it’s a franchise borne from Gene Roddenberry’s 1960s vision of an utopian society. It was based on his a coherent set of  idealistic principles the background to which; were the emerging political tensions within American Society during a phase of economic expansion, …

Please, Can We All Just Stop “Innovating”? by BILL TAYLOR

view original /BILL TAYLOR/ blogs.hbr.org There's something about the culture of business that tends toward excess — in financial markets, to be sure, but also in the "market" for new ideas and management techniques. The dynamic is always the same, whether the idea in question is reengineering, six-sigma quality, or lean production systems: A genuinely original strategy …

Defense Official Says Automatic Cuts Will Cause ‘Absurdities’ By Mike Mount

The Pentagon's chief budget officer is ringing the alarm bell about looming budget cuts that could destroy the department's new defense strategy and force the defense industry to face "absurdities" as defense programs are shuttered. "This is not the way to do defense planning and budgeting," said Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. Carter was speaking …

FAIL!

by J. William DeMarco EPIC FAIL! Is that always a bad thing? Sitting here on my XX birthday… I ponder all the successes and the EPIC FAILs in life. Success does not mean avoiding failure… it is all what you do with the EPIC FAIL. Do you learn, do you get stronger? All of us …

Multi-Generational Leadership by Wagner NYU

view original / wagner.nyu.edu blogger's note: Something I have been pondering for years... and honestly generational issues truly fascinate me.  Culture tells the story of YOUR time, YOUR history, what impact a generation as we grow and mature.  In the military, politics, and I am sure in business...we are at a juncture...Baby Boomers staying loungers, but retiring, Gen …

Step 1 To Great Leadership: Pick Up a Pen, and Write it Down by Terry Starbucker

view original / terrystarbucker.com Blogger's note:  Been following Terry Starbucker for a while... highly recommend (go ahead, click the link above...come on).  I came across this the other day and thought...how simple...and how true.  I have been jotting things down for about 7-10 years now and have all the notebooks on shelves--probably need to review those books …